On July 4, Rwanda will celebrate 22 years of Liberation —more than two decades after the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF)-Inkotanyi overthrew the interim government which oversaw the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.

On that day, the then rebels, who had waged a liberation struggle since 1990, captured the capital Kigali and pushed out the government forces after 100 days of massacres targeting the Tutsi, which claimed over one million people.

Twenty-two years down the road, Rwanda has shed off the tag of a blood-soaked country torn apart by the genocide which left in its path massive destruction.

Addressing a congregation of youth this week, President Paul Kagame said that Rwanda emerged out of its past because of “thinking big” and not allowing to be defined as a small country.

Highlighting the progress the country has registered over the last 22 years, the head of state said that after the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, Rwanda had been defined as a small and failed state but because of the focussed leadership, it never lived up to that tag.

“They called us a small failed state. But we refused to fail. We refused to be small. We are not small. A good idea cannot be small. Good ideology cannot be small. People, a nation cannot be small,” he said.

As Rwandans celebrate 22 years of liberation, RPF-Inkotanyi says the citizens have reaped the gains of liberation, with poverty levels tremendously reduced while progress has been made in health, education, infrastructure and governance.

Protais Musoni, one of the senior cadres of RPF says that Rwanda has made socio-economic gains worth noting but noted that the liberation struggle continues, especially on the economic front.

“We can comfortably say that the past 22 years have been transformational for Rwanda. We have registered many achievements. One of the major achievements is in the education sector, where a majority of Rwandan children are going to school.

“We have also made major gains in infrastructure development, health, institutional and capacity building to spur development. All this has been possible because of a leadership that does not tolerate corruption,” Mr Musoni said.

Mr Musoni says that Rwanda’s progress is not only limited to domestic or economic gains, but it can also be justified by Rwanda’s status and role in the international arena, including peacekeeping and its role in regional and continental integration.

“We are a country whose achievements have been there for everyone to see, but we are saying that is not enough. We still have a lot to do. We have new liberation fronts which we still think have to be won, such as economic liberation of all Rwandans,” he said.

“We have been able to reduce poverty by half but a lot more needs to be done to ensure that all Rwandans get out of poverty. The struggle is never over. We keep setting the bar higher, whenever we sense that complacency is setting in,” he added.